american history tv continues now with a discussion on the importance of civic engagement in america. we will hear about research public programs and online tools aimed at increasing civic learning for children and adults. held by the white house historical association, this is an hour and half. good afternoon, and welcome to the national archives. i am the archivist of the united states, we are honored to have you with us this afternoon. when stuart and anita came to my office to talk about how we might participate we quickly came to an idea of doing a public panel on civic literacy. two of my favorite days the national archives are constitution and bill of rights day, when we host naturalization services in the rotunda in front of the charters of freedom. 5200 individuals take a look --

the oath of allegiance, articulated in those documents. the guest speaker >> reporter: the citizens of their rights, and urges them to take advantage of those rights, but more importantly, to understand the responsibilities. i was only struck with a feeling that if i walked out onto constitution avenue, and interviewed the random american citizens they would not have the same understanding of their rights and responsibilities, or how the government works. one in four people can name all three stooges, only 29% of american voters most half of the public and name a single supreme court justice, yet two thirds of americans know at least one of the american idol judges. educating the public is the

mission of the national archives, hence our excitement of posting this afternoon's conversation. this is currently the director of the franklin roosevelt museum. overseeing digital media, educational programming. prying -- prior to the museum he was a producer and broadcast journalist. rainey is director of internet and technology research, at q research center, a nonpartisan fact tank that examines major political social and technology trends. walker is the founder and ceo of american village citizen trust, the unique campuses main purpose is to teach and inspire young people to discover more about american history, and to encourage their civic engagement. thomas here is the assistant to

the president of necessary -- mississippi state. prior to ice civics, -- engaging classroom experiences, and she helped launch pbs's media and platform reaching over 1.5 million educators. the moderator for today's discussion is cokie roberts. our television radio print and stage. mary martha, karen martha, and roberts, political commentator, heard on npr and seen on nbc is the offer -- author of capital gains founding mothers.

we are our mothers daughters to name a few. the most important credential for me is that she is a member of the national archives foundation board, and on my first day on the job here, i open my desk drawer to find a note of welcome from cokie. >> thank you for coming, there is a wonderful place, a suppository of what you're interested in and doing your research on to talk about. david is so right about how incredibly inspiring, if you ever want to feel good about the country, the thing to do is go to a nationalization ceremony. today, here, with the charters of freedom right there, but also with the murals of the white guys and wigs and heights. you know, and the people who were taken the oath are every

imaginable hue from all over the world. i remember asking a woman from a library, once my here at the archives, why she had decided to become a citizen. she said because america is always there when people need america. that is what has caused the blessings on this country, and i want to be part of the blessing. which i thought was quite wonderful. but, david is right in terms of our topic here today. going outside the building becomes a little bit harder. in terms of what people know about our government. one of our producers who was from great britain has become a citizen. an american citizen, and he had taken the should listen -- citizenship test. he said okay cokie, i know i can pass this test.

so we went to people, waiting in line to go through the capital. they were here in washington, here in the nations capital. we asked many of them, this is questions on the citizenship test, and none of them got them at all, and my role is to play the right answer. it was instructive. each of these people, very fine people up here now are trying to remedy that, in one way or another, and they are going to talk to us about what the organizations are doing. the first, irani is going to give us an overview of where we are. for those of you who do not know about the research it is the gold plate. it is the place you go for the most accurate, most thorough research on all kinds of topics. and the is in charge of the digital part of it basically,

and basically everybody does everything. but, he has something to share with us. it is about what is happening in terms of civic engagement and civic education. solely. >> thank you that was so nice, and thank you david, it is amazing, this is a big day. our data -- one of the cheapest ways to get a laugh in america is to go out on the street with an open mic and ask questions about our government, and about the news environment. what is striking about the number of ways, and i'm going to read you data that is depressing, is that we have gone through two enormous communication revolution in our lifetime, that has opened up more information to more people

in more ways than ever before. we have the cable tv revolution, and then of course we have the internet revolution. astonishingly, the same proportion of americans can answer these questions correctly and answer them incorrectly now as when gallup was asking many of the same questions in the 19 60s and 1970s. you would think that the impact would go in a different direction, but it doesn't. so, here is a little bit of what we don't know about what is going on in the country. the annenberg policy center does occasional surveys about public knowledge. the most recent one in 2017, 26% of americans, could not name three branches of government. and, one third could not name a single branch. 37% can't name the rights guaranteed under the first amendment. and only 14% spontaneously said freedom of the press. 33% said

that when there is a 44 tie in supreme court, they were not sure what happens to the law after that, they did not know it goes back to lower courts for decision. the american council and trustees and alumni do surveys of college students and college graduates. 80% in the most recent survey would have scored a d and f on civic knowledge. college students and not state the length of term of members of the senate and house representatives. there is a center at xavier university they called the study of the american dream center. in a 2016 survey, 85% cannot define on a multiple-choice test, they did not have an open ended answer, but cannot define the role of law. 73% did not know the function of the data show branch. 63% cannot name one of their senators. 52% could not name the governor of their state. at 57% cannot define the word amendment. my little contribution to the moe, larry, curly horror story

is that 10% of college graduates believe that judge doody is on the supreme court. the majority think that she is more trustworthy than anybody who is currently on the court. this leaves america in a sour mood, particularly those who are in despair of the finest. we have been studying the state of democracy in america. we have asked americans a series of questions, starting with, how do you think it is working, only 18% say american democracy now is working very well. 61% say significant structural changes should be made in the way we perform our duties. we march people through two batteries of questions, where we outline 26 traits of a democracy, and say how important is this trade to a functioning democracy. and then we march them through the same traits and say how well are we doing on these things? in 23 out of those 26 cases, there were seven of again

sometimes overwhelmingly, great gaps between our hopes of what is working well for democracy, and the we we actually think we are performing. 78% of americans say it is good for republicans and democrats to get along together and solve problems, only 19% say that we are doing that effectively, now. >> they are right. >> there is a 53% gap between those who think it ought to be the case that officials who must perform are punished for the way they must perform in their jobs. but, only 30% say that we are doing that well. there are similar gaps when you talk about the role of the military not being involved in political partisan ship, and about protecting the freedoms and rights of others. when you ask about those structural changes americans would like to make, they cite a couple of things, the first is now the majority of americans think that the electoral -- electoral college is not working.

55% say it would be better to elect presidents with a majority of the popular vote, rather than the electoral college system we now have, 41% would like to keep the system the way it is. a vast majority, 321 margins now say there is too much influence of money and lobbyists in politics. and what is most distressing in some respect about these numbers is that americans have begun to despair in themselves. up until five years ago, almost 2/3, often three quarters of americans would say at the very least, we trust in the wisdom of the american people. there was a collapse in that number in the year 2011 and 2012, when people of both parties, said they no longer trust american and their political wisdom. when we look at the role of technology, and this is interesting, because a couple of things are happening, the first is a whole nature of civic engagement is changing, and technology is enabling it. there are not good ways anymore to measure things that used to be consistently measured in the past. the loss of activity through

the cause of civic engagement are going up. they are afforded by technology. those people that went from the cajun nation to help the folks in houston, that was one of the greatest civic acts in modern american history. but, you would not count that in the old traditional measures of civic engagement. something big is going on, and yet americans are not participating in any of the classic ways, much more than they did in the past. voting is going up, but level of engagement with officials is a little bit higher now, thanks to the internet. the level of contact with local news organizations is about steady, from where it was a while ago. so, there is a mixed story about what is going on was civic engagement, in a way, we are expanding nature of what it is, and that is a good thing. in another way, there is not a positive story to tell. the importance of that is what we are studying here today. civic engagement is a pathway to civic involvement and political participation.

it is one of those things in social science where the causal arrow points in both directions. the people who are physically aware are physically engaged, and the people who are physically engaged are physically aware. there is a virtuous cycle. the people in this room ought to be proud of and ought to be nurturing. >> thank you, lee. in terms of nurturing, that is what these folks are doing. paul, i know many of you are here representing presidential libraries in one way or another. paul, as you heard, is that the roosevelt library, fdr roosevelt library, and is here to talk to us about the many things that are going on. >> if we could get the slides up , i will stand up here so i can see them. the national archives is in some ways america's largest civic education consortium. if you look at all of the archives in the presidential libraries combined. the fdr library was the first library and was opened in june

1941. at the opening, this is what fdr said, this latest addition to the archives of america is dedicated to a moment and government of the people by themselves is everywhere architect. there is confidence in the future of democracy that has not been diminished in this nation and will not diminish. the war is raging in europe. fdr has been elected to a third term. one of his primary focuses is opening a presidential library. he wanted his records be available to future historians. he noted that the pro--- he knew that the most important way to understand how our government works is to see how our government works, and access the documents. the president stepped down and they took all the papers with them, it is considered the personal property. the national archives has an extraordinary reach. there are 466,871 people who came to the national archives facilities last year, students,

and participated in educational programs. over 5 million bill -- visitors to all of our exhibits over the world, and 30 million on my visits. the vast majority of which were two presidential library sites. there is a large footprint, we are having a dramatic interaction with the public in many ways. but will we have not done particularly well as coordinate all the resources being offered by the presidential libraries, the national archives in washington, and other places. as of today, the archivists have announced the launch of a new webpage which is combining all of the resources from all of the various departments and units with in the national archives that brings all of this material together in one place, so teachers can come here and find distance learning programs, provisional development, teaching resources, you can see the lesson plans here, all of the videos from the libraries are available. what we are trying to do is create a consolidated resource,

this is something that has launched today, it is like a beta site, and we hope that it will grow, we can include other partners and organizations. as we develop important civic educational resources, for educators, we can start think of -- thinking of this as a clearinghouse. we have a much greater impact than we could ever have as a single unit. the distance-learning campaign, the on-site classes and online resources is a way for us to get out there and interact with the students and teachers who need it. so, this is a brookings institute survey. it is fascinating. the things of the top of the things the students do the least of. you see the top 70% of students never write a letter to give an opinion or anything like that. you can see that how the proportions take place of the kinds of civic education and civic engagement activities that are happening in schools. the only one that really happens at a majority of the time, 63% at least weekly, is a discussion of current events.

all of these other activities only happened really. how can we create activities that are going to engage people and inspire students to be engaged in their community? we have launched something in hyde park, thanks to one of our donors, our educational specialist, jeff irving is leading up this initiative. phase 1 is to provide local teachers a test program with these specific kits. they will select about 10 classes in the area, and have these programs going on with the teachers, to decide which activities they want to do in the class, and create a contest for them over the course of the school year. running concurrently, this will be getting feedback from the teachers to understand what is working in the classroom, what is inspiring the kids, what are getting kids engage, what is working for them, what is in the context of the conference i have in the contemporary classroom with all the standards of learning and

restrictions they have on themselves. eventually, we hope taking that feedback, repositioning the material we are making available and making it available to not just other presidential libraries, but to anyone around the country interested in using this material. there are initially 25 different activities we are offering is a meeting for the teachers, this is just a few. you can see whether it is training a classroom, during an interview, or differentiating between fake or real news, writing a letter to the president, selecting service activities. service learning is a critical opponent of what is the new wave of civic education and civic engagement. we think these are important things, because this generation does not want to be lectured to. they want to do things. they want to participate, be heard, and express their opinion. we have to find ways to do things that are actively participate, not passive. this is one of my favorite quotes from president roosevelt, we cannot succeed, and i folks who express their choice will bear to choose wisely, this whole idea about

education, we have to stop you got it as a one-way street. if we continue to lecture the next generation, they are not going to hear is, what we need to do is engage them. we need to use words like what is your opinion, express or sell, get involved, be heard, demand respect. those other things that really engage this next generation of students. i think it is something we have to do more effectively at all of our sites. everyone of you are the leading edge of civic education because you represent a president, you are automatically talking about how our american government works, and how we can more effectively use that platform as we get forward. >> thank you. in terms of they don't want to be lectured to, they want to participate, tom, that is very much down your alley. so, talk to us about the american village citizenship.

>> good afternoon. let me do a quick shout out to david for allowing us in this extraordinary american treasure. here are the enshrined charters of freedom, and they are protected, but the best protection is what we do at the local level with those who come to our sites, and those with whom we engage. you have seen a couple of surveys, i want to ask you to participate in a survey. how many of you have taught a teenager how to drive a car? okay, keep your hands up, if it is two or more, three or more? 4+? well, if you have taught a teenager to drive a car, you

know the truth of a statement, you can pass the written test perfectly, but it does not mean you know how to drive a car. i will say which tiled, we have three, passed the test with 100%, and came out, and i said okay, drive me home. and this precious child said okay, daddy, remind me which one is the break. i believe there is a parallel to civics, if you will. you know the rules of the road, but you need some practice time, because the essence of the american system is participation. and, you need to know the rules of the road as well. it is really why the american village was created. we are located 100, excuse me,

just south of birmingham, 188 acres. we serve students from five states, alabama, mississippi, tennessee, georgia and florida. we were formed largely because, i won't say because of no child left behind, but one of the unintended consequences, which the speaker alluded to yesterday, was that civics in american history were left behind as a result of that policy decision. on our campus, we have some presidential assets, full size oval office, a full-size east room, and we also have a re- creation of the president's house in philadelphia. in just a couple of minutes, on our school programs, i believe some of them could be replicable at your own site.

at least the principle of them. this is paul revere's ride, which is not a presidential program. but, what we have tried to do is take what we know about young people and how they learn . we know that early childhood to -- education can be accomplished through play. so, paul revere's ride is all about play. kids have a blast that they play. but we use different teaching methods in our program. one of our great young people program for elementary is choose your george. it is a fabulous -- fabulously fun program where students contrast and compare. we do hats of the president in the oval office.

we are employing methods of contrasting and comparing. the stamp act rally starts things off, and it is where we used first-person interpretation of participation. students land right in the middle of the scene, and are called upon to be active participant, not to be an audience member, or a bystander, but to participate. that is inspired by coming together -- that is inspired by the coming together of colonists for the first time to protest the stamp act. constitutional convention, if i could channel jeffrey rosen, i would do so. i am passionate about it, you need to see the constitutional convention. we do not set the topic. you can almost tell what is on the news by what the students

bring up. we have a delegate who reminds them what they have been talking about during the convention. but, if the president is in the news, you see that, if congress is in the news, or the supreme court, that is the way the discussion goes. we know that experiencing things, that participating creates deeper learning than merely a sage on the stage. so, that is the essence of those programs. all of these programs ultimately involve choice. young people will face choices, we all face choices. the underground railroad is a great program, our freedom request, and one goes into, i wish you could see the students deeply participating in that,

and it is a very participatory program. last, i would single out here is we do student mock election and student convention. we had 1500 delegate at the student convention. we had over 300,000 students spoke -- vote in the mock election. let me tell you a couple of quick lessons we have learned. our first assessment of urban, suburban, and rural school systems who had sent students to us demonstrated students, and the university conducted a survey saying there was a compassionate commitment to freedom, but what was missing was an exclusive linkage to an outlet of student engagement,

that those channels and pathways for how to be involved needed to be more exclusively outlined for them. then, the second commit -- significant finding was one that i think bears our attention, and that is this, students who had been through the program were involved in an assessment, and they were as -- asked about leadership. most of them did not rank themselves as good leaders. almost universally, they gave the same answer in a small group setting, because they didn't ought to know enough. that is really a perplexing, but a sobering reality. students could not view themselves as leaders because they did not know enough. so, we need to focus on what it is that is missing in that equation to make them active,

positive contributors to our american civic system. the last challenge i would mention is this, i hear often it is so boring to learn about the three branches of government. evidently, not many americans are learning about them. there is an attorney, fred gray, who worked closely with dr. king. he is an albanian. he said i did not participate in civil rights efforts by marching, by peaceably assembling and seeking redress of grievances as a constitution guarantee. rather, i used the three branches of government as an attorney. the congress, the president, and the courts. his record is profound. i think we need to bring life to the three branches in our study, and i think that will be using real stories to help lift

the dullness of that. the challenge i would say, the opportunity, emerson says these are the best of times if we know how to use them. our places are increased -- incredible teaching labs. you have the sources that demonstrate the intentional stress and tensions among the branches of government. do you process records that demonstrate the contrast of public good and private interest? you are primed to do that. i would also conclude sibiu by saying this, that i think we must be advocates. american education must be more than stem, because, and

jefferson said, if a nation expects to remain ignorant and be free, it expects what never was and never will be. every country in this world that wants to prosper needs math, needs science, needs reading, literacy. but, american education requires more because we are preparing our young people to be their own self governors. and self government is based on active lifelong participation. my last commercial, we had a question yesterday about the centennial, i'd like you to say that word out loud with me. jimmy quinn centennial. that is america's great 250th birthday party coming up, let's all plan to be part of that. >> thank you.

>> louise, not only do we need to get to the kids, we need to get to the teachers. we do. tell us what you are doing about that. >> first, i want to think david for this great opportunity to talk to you guys. this is not standing up, so let's see if that will work. probably not. thank you so much. and also stuart and anita for this great opportunity. i am the executive director of civics. i think you have been depressed enough, so i will skip through. i think you guys know where the problems are. i think we can move along here. let's just say that on the k-12 public school side it is no better. we are the worst performing discipline, civics is, next to anybody know, which discipline performs worse than civics? take a guess. it is relevant, history. correct. our kids are 18% proficient in

history, and 23% efficient on the nation's report cards. that is directly tied to the fact that the younger you are, the less you believe in democracy. that is a problem that all of us should be worried about. i civics is just saturday o'connor's legacy, the first woman on the supreme court. justice o'connor, along with just a scooter were really concerned and are still concerned about this fundamental value of civic education, and our need to invest in that. if we don't do that, we will not have the government that we deserve. justice center meyer joined our board three years ago to continue the legacy from the court. we also work with justice for

such. we are a nonpartisan organization, and we really believe that we can make a difference with kids. now, how did the supreme court justice think about how to bring fun, excitement to civics? she had no idea. so, she went around and talk to a lot of people and decided you know what, our kids are gamers. they are video gamers. i am the mother of two teenagers who i am just a little bit embarrassed to say like fortnight better than the i civics games. but, nevertheless, i have not had to bribe them at all, they have been a very early participant in trying out the icivics games. we have 19 games, and all of our games are simulations. you can come for free on the

icivics site, you can come to icivics and play as the president of the united states . in our game of executive command, you get bills from congress, you can either do what, what are you allowed to do, sign it, and veto it, that is. so, we are going to find that out by playing this game. we have a game in which you can run your own campaign as a candidate for the white house, called when the white house. you can be a republican, a democrat, you can choose your platform. you soon discover the electoral college issues in the size of your state, and your campaign platform. please, i invite you to come play all of our games. we have a new game coming out that is about news literacy, which is much interest to cokie and others. so, with that, we started small , and now we have 5 million kids a year, we keep growing,

and it is all pretty exciting to us. i think part of the reason that david might have asked me to speak here is that we are such a natural partnership between the presidential sites and a digital organization such as icivics. why is icivics so big in schools, it is because we make it terribly easy. is it all that we need to do? absolutely not. we need civics lives, we need news literacy, we need a whole lot of stuff, and we need to work together because we are on a common mission here. our curriculum is comprehensive, it starts in fourth and fifth grade, all the way through high school. we have everything, not only games, everything you can imagine. please go and check it out.

we have a lot of resources, now in venice. justice of the mayor made sure of that. it works, we have a whole lot of research with the details. what you can find out, we won a lot of awards also. but, it does get to the fact that once we start that process of understanding how my action causes a reaction in our civic life, we will begin that process . the parkland kids have said in many different ways that the civics education that they received was part of channeling their action towards a civic, in a civic way. whether you agree or not what they are doing, there is that relationship that you find out about something in civics class, and then ultimately, you

find ways to address it in however you choose to address it. there is that kind of circle that gets formed. now, 5 million kids is a law, but it is not all kids. all kids, probably 10 million a year. the only way to get there is to make more room in the classroom. how do we do that? that happens at the state level, education is primarily the states were about civility. many states are working on that now. i just wanted to highlight three, i see in the audience my colleague, stephen, who is actively working with us in massachusetts. no one has done more than stephen to make that a reality. thank you. eleanor florida, those are three states, all different meanings, that are actively working and have both legislation as well as social studies standards where we see

a huge difference in the number of kids who are going to receive a quality civic education, and who are going to prioritize it in the classroom. that brings us to really why i am here. that is this idea of a partnership with the presidential sites. we are facing, not all of us are going to be able to work at the state level on the policy, we certainly do not do that. the question is, on the national level, what could we do to favor civic education and to make this a reality?at icivics, we are pursuing sandra day o'connor's legacy, and her devotion to this cause to raising the visibility of the new civic education for our democracy. so, to do that, we have formed a coalition.

i have to go back. and the coalition has a lot of people, a lot of very large organizations that have joined us, several libraries, presidential libraries have joined us, and the idea here is to band together to have a unified voice to say we cannot go on like this. we must make civics a priority. with that, i'll just thank you very much for this opportunity. >> so i want to ask a couple of logistical questions before we get to our broader conversation, which everybody please jump in when we do that. this is all done through

classroom working i decided to icivics and play the game? >> you can just go on. we have two sites, one is for teachers and one of her parents. we have a campaign right now where we encourage you to play. both is in english and in spanish, and we bring them together. friel -- feel free to go on to icivics.org. >> how do you measure the number of students, you said five main students, how do you know that? >> we have a record of every teacher that comes to our site. so, if they come to our site, we have a record of her classroom, and she gets signed into the classroom, and that is how we get the numbers. >> tom, first of all, to all of the students in your program come to your site, is a residential, what happened? >> it is not residential, it is -- our out-of-state visitors

typically will spend the night, and we would encourage them to go to the birmingham civil rights institute, or other institutions. but, they come from the five southeastern states. our experience has been if we can get a teacher to come, they come back, because it is such a participatory program. it is almost like seeing a lightbulb go off. what is your estimate about how many kids you have reached? >> we have reached almost 750,000. am i to say in the states, and in my own state, 50% of the students were on free and reduced lunch. they don't travel often out-of- state and, we tried to give them a taste of a broader view of the united states, and its tapestry of history, and ways in which to be active.

>> do you do any kind of follow- up? do you have any way of knowing whether it sticks? >> we have done one, i will call it a primitive longitudinal study. we are hampered by privacy concerns, being able to track students. but, aside from one student who famously remembered whatever they had to eat that day, most of them can cite a specific vignette that they were in, and it is pretty neat. >> i saw you nodding when you were saying the problems and going back to find this information out. is that one of the challenges? >> yes, but it is probably not as hard. i think there are so many pathways now, that like to

spark or set the spark off, the way thomas is describing it. it is so striking, when you hear all sorts of stories about engagement, it is a progression. people don't just go from zero interest in this stuff, to all in everywhere, every meeting, every donation, they progress. the stories about progression start often with educational experiences. and then, stuff that happens in the community. some of the most engaged people in their communities now are mommy bloggers. or, mommy facebook users now. the reason they started posting stuff on the internet is because they were going to have a kid, they just had had a kid, they wanted to find others like them and share their experiences. soon enough, especially around election time, they start part -- talking about what is going on in their community and wider issues. there is a progression that is so easy to watch once you have

that initial engagement. >> we love mommy bloggers at the archives. it is how we got them to sign up to spend the night on a cold marble floor in front of the charters of freedom. we now have overnights who would like to join. >> want to get a mommy blogger, they start talking you up in your community, it is gold. >> i still notice in your research, that when you look at the demographics on civic knowledge, young people are much more ignorant than old people. >> yes. and it is partly because of the phenomenon that is being described here that was for conventional traditional classroom civic education is being diminished. we are in a civics recession. in fact, that is a major part of the study. the other part of it is is that these are age old patterns. young people, over time, have

never been as into it as older folks, in part because they have not set en route in the community, they have not necessarily fixed our lives into major investments, a house, and families and all of that. these things progress over time, it is not a uniformly distressing story. what is distressing, though, is that the age old pattern of the most physically engaged people are also the best off people. they are highly educated, and they tend to be well off. when the internet opened up, there were a lot of new possibilities for civic engagement. he did not have to have a lot of money to speak as a representative. but when new voices were coming in, and that story about social economic status being determined was vanishing, but now it is common black. it is being replicated on the web just like it was in the preweb era. >> paul, do you want to address that? why is that? >> i think we have seen it shifting recently from what we think of as traditional computers to cell phones. a lot of them don't have

computers, they have cell phones. a lot of the material that was originally available for participation was internet based, not mobile based. as we are shifting toward a mobile user friendly content, you are starting to see more availability. again, it is particularly in immigrant communities and homes. sometimes there is only one phone for the family to use. that is the primary pathway to the content on the internet. it is difficult in a way that was very different than 15 years ago the only way to get on the internet was to your computer. >> so as the technology changes, in one way it makes it more available, and in another way it makes it harder. >> doesn't that put the burden on all of you all to keep up with the technology? >> absolutely. the key is it is always about the story. i was a journalist like you. everyone of you has a great story to tell, and the story to tell is the civics story. learning how to tell the stories in compelling ways is

what will make people care, what will make students care, what will make adults care, you have got a great story to tell about your present site, and people want to hear that story. in some ways, technology is just a pathway, you have to start with a great story. if you've got a great story, you can find a way to put it on somebody's phone, so it shows up and inspires them. our educational specialist, jeff, always talks about one of the things we have to do is to plant the seed. you can't tell the whole story in their visit to our site. all you do is plant the seed and hope as they go home, that that seed grows into interest. over time, hopefully they involve into a physically engaged person. it takes time. i would like to point out the obvious, one of the reasons older people know more about civics than older people is that they have had a longer time to learn. >> reporter: more years behind it. go ahead tom. >> i might comment on planning

the scene. we designed our program around this question, how many sentences will be get at the supper table tonight when a child goes home? and, what kind of sentences which we hope they might say? ideally, we would hope that perhaps they are either reinforcing something their parents know, or maybe introducing them to something they don't know. i think you just roll it down as a parent, or if you have young children in your family, it really is like that. what is the nugget that you leave with? >> it is what we call the lead. >> yes. and, i just think sometimes you know david mccullough said that we make teaching history so difficult, and it is really two

words, tell story. >> will store, you know, a lot of it is the fault of the textbook. and, the dates. we really don't need to know all of those dates, they're all taking up a lot of room in my poor old brain. and also, that is what the sites can do so much better than anybody else, is tell the whole story of the whole family , particularly the wives in this case at some point, please god, let it be the husband, and it's much more alive, you can relate to it so much more. so, it makes the responsibility that much greater, it seems to me. >> so, the roosevelt home and museum is a combined side, we have a national park service site which manages the home, and eleanor roosevelt home, and top college, and we have the

national archives managed site which is the museum. one of the things that happens is that the homesite, the national parks people have started this program engaging fourth and fifth graders to get them involved in making decisions about what kind of service programs they want to do. so they came in as fourth- graders, they decided what they were going to do, they came up with my proposals, and this year they go back to fifth- graders, the class votes, and the cost of that program. >> that's right, give us an example. >> i don't know what that that -- the nine things they chose were, but it could be anything from working in a food kitchen, to help pick out a neighborhood, or to be involved with transportation, whatever that fifth grade class decides to do. the point was that it shifted responsibility from us, from the national park service, to the students and empowered them to come up with their ideas, here is your homework a summer, go home and do this, come up with these ideas, and get the whole class to vote on it can

use the democratic process, and become engaged in whatever you decide to do and execute that. that is something that does not cost anything, everyone of us can do that. it is just a question of understanding where is the key entry point, you got them on your site, you've got 20 minutes with the 35 minutes with them, how do you plant that seed so that when they leave it grows into something beautiful. >> i was really interested in what you said about the parkland students. that is really encouraging. we need encouragement. the fact that they were able to take what they had learned in school and to use it for civic engagement, how did they express that? >> so, they were actually in boston over the last spring, and we talked to them parikh they also tweeted out support for civics class. it is in the context, i did not have time to go into it, but

florida passed the sandra day o'connor syndication -- civics education act in 2010. that act took some time to be implemented. it was a major and comprehensive commitment in the state of florida, including money, for our teacher professional development and many other things. and, and exam, and an evaluation of the school. all of those things together mean that for example, 80% of kids in florida use icivics, and many , every kid in every student in florida get the proper -- proper civic education. we went back and traced the middle school from which the parkland kids, at marjory stoneman douglas, students came, 80 6% proficiency at the class examine civics. so, obviously there are many factors, and it is a terrible tragedy, they got very very strong teachings, there are a

lot of different factors, so we are not taking credit, but, it is, there is a context for that kind of civic engagement, and i think that is the best argument for impact, when a state actually takes this seriously. illinois is doing a very different model, but they are doing the same primarily from the high school, and now possibly middle school. in massachusetts, we are just about to pass legislation, we changed the social studies standards to have a new civics class. those are all things that can be done, and i think that if there were a national voice speaking to this issue, we would have a lot more facility to pass state legislation of this kind and to make movement. >> it sounds like one goal you all should take away from here after these fabulous days in washington, is basically lobbying. the state legislators need to put civics back in the school.

what really happens in a lot of cases, you all know better than i, and got him eliminated from the testing. and once it is eliminated from the testing, those teachers stopped teaching it. at a time when you make a case, it could not have been a stupider time to stop teaching civics in history. >> the national assessment of educational progress, which had been benchmarking performance in history and civics has been dropped, now. and, it was measuring fourth grade, eighth grade, and 12th grade performance, and that has now been dropped, do budget reasons. >> that is what i meant about the testing. >> lee, i was curious, you talked about 2011, and 2012, the trust dropped off. why, what happened? >> lack of confidence in the political wisdom of other americans. it was partly a feeling that

everybody feels that they are losing. even folks whose party won the presidential, you ask people now, and they all think that their side is losing more political battles than they are winning. >> who do they think is winning? >> the other guy, and it is partly a function to the balkanized media culture, where in many respects, the easiest way to get someone's attention is to say the world is falling apart in the way you understand it, and the way that you care about it. it is very much bound up in this systemic problem that we have with declining trust in institutions. and it is combined with polarization. there are big streams feeding this. >> did something happen in that time period? >> around the 2012 election, it was about 65% that said at rock bottom, if you ask about who you want to be deciding who is with them or who should make decisions about policy, fellow

citizens were the last one suitable, but both sides right at that moment, and it was partly because it was contentious, and partly because people were more manipulated and feeding off of the system and things like that. so, it's very much a part of the larger cultural story that we are all telling each other. >> do you all see that among the kids? do you see a cynicism about the country and about the ability to govern? >> yes. the question is whether teachers are going to be enabled and empowered to take one, however the child comes in, and sort of be able to give them some confidence that the structure that is established has foundations that they can work with. that they can feel a part of, and that they can work with. so, like you said dates,

exactly the role, and all of these, no, but the system is checks and balances that we have. that is fundamental. we know the philosophical roots, and we need kids to really imbue why that matters, and why that is important, and why they are than a part of it. that is the process that needs to occur. and that when they come in, they basically, you know a lot of times they look at our teachers and say you know what, this has nothing to do with me, the system is rigged against me, and that is the cynicism we must overcome. teachers are such a critical part of overcoming that. >> but it is an ecosystem, schools influence that parents and teachers have on, teenagers particularly down here, the influence the peers have the -- on them is way up here. it is a disproportionate influence factor.

we think that the schools can fix everything, the schools. one of the problems with the ability of the peers to influence them is that they don't really have sophisticated tools for analyzing the information flow that is coming at them like a fire hose. social media has completely transformed the way information is exchanged. it has eliminated all the filters, and they don't have the tools to understand this is from a credible source, this is not from a credible source. my best friend jimmy said this, therefore it must be true and i am going to believe this. that ecosystem is what we had to find a way to change, because that is consistent coming up with the programs that i've seen of the last couple of days is a critical part. we have to understand that we have to put our president in the context of what the ecosystem was when they were alive in a way that the students can relate back to. the fact that you know the newspapers, the john adams of the 1800 election were

seditious and crazily a part of anything you see today. but the population understood that that is what it was. i think that finding a way to change that ecosystem is a really bigger question than just teaching kids. >> i want to say one of my favorite series and that 800 election was one of the newspapers said that charles coates was thinking who was running for that, he had come home from new england, two for him and two for adams. but, that ecosystem of course includes a lot of political conversation. and, i noticed lee, in your data, that half of the people said that they have political conversations at least once a week. and that sounded so relaxing to me. but, again, older people much more so than younger people.

but if that conversation contributing or is a driving people away? >>, it helps, if it includes their social media feeds, involves half of the americans don't get information to their social media feeds, it's not in their networks it's not what they want to talk about the unfriend people who want to talk about too much and things like that. so >> i love them. >> but conversation to me does perpetuate if you are talking with the stuff at the dinner table or if you're engaged with other members of your family is one of those things that spark to different engagement so it's a tough thing and both parties of people in our society are the most engaged. and they are all worked up about this step in is one of the awkward hydraulics. the other thing that is been so interesting to watch in social

media in particular is that first of all, surfaces idea, information about your bodies that you didn't even know, you think they are like you. and they are your friends and stuff and then all of a sudden they say these weird things and you did not understand that they thought that way so it's all sorts of awkward conversations that go on in chips and there's a pile of silence. if you don't think the people that are in your audience agree with you you self censor. so it was first discovered when germans were asked about why they were attracted to the nazis, some people don't want to be perceived as being you know on other teams. >> we are going to turn your questions shortly because i saw yesterday main morning that you

have lots of wonderful? did we have microphones on each side and if you just start lining up behind them, that would be a good thing to do. so, i know we talk about this all the time, and we are always trying to sort of find our way past it., but we keep coming back to it seems to me is the politicalization. and when you cited that number about people think bipartisanship is good, they don't think this is happening, and they are right. but it's also true that they don't reward it. the reward the partisanship. is that part of what you're trying to deal with in civic education is to try to get more on the same page? >> well, i would say yes. yes, i think that it is, the undercurrent of our programs is

that, whether it be, it caught the bridge in 1875 of the edmund pettis bridge in 1965, the same theme has been liberty, and freedom. we all have in acquired it at the same time. and for many it represented a tougher struggle. but it is, ultimately what unites us and i really think that we have, even though we all have our strong political opinions, fortunately, i am in a job as many of you are well you're not expected to express them. and so it's pretty easy to be friends. but i really do think there is some sense of obligation we have to help lift, to help

remind our fellow americans, that we have more in common than divides us. even the most bitter political election. look at, steve and i don't remember your last name, we were talking about the sequential, and centennial, and he said you ought to know further than john quincy adams and thomas jefferson and their bitter rivalry and how he reconciled the later years. >> although when they did start writing each other, jefferson said abigail is not part of this. [ laughter ] i don't want to hear from her. because they had had a very bitter exchange after he was like. and she didn't know that. and when she discovered it, she started writing to him, when she discovered john was writing to him she started writing to him, to an he actually ended up

being gracious. so, go ahead. tell us who you are. >> good afternoon thank you so much, my name is mayor and i'm the librarian at the reagan national library and that's little like this second was. i hear along with all of my colleagues from across the 13 presidential libraries and many of us are working sort of tirelessly as one woman bands alone in the wilderness creating what are some really exceptional opportunities, recently across the country engaging young people so that they really not only see themselves in history, but can find their voice and feel empowered. for instance at the reagan library, as well as at the bush 43 library and the truman library and other libraries as

well. thanks to the tireless efforts of my directors, who raise the funds to create the opportunity for students to actually participate in technologically integrated simulation in that space, and cookie as members of the press and members of the government so they are fighting their voice and exploring their boat, so i have an opportunity to answer not just how does the government work but why is the government establishing this way. and how can you play a role in this now and when you become a voter? so my question is probably the toughest question of the day. i'll take credit for that. where does the funding and the support, for all this work that needs to be done on the ground? >> paul? [ laughter ] >> i want to ask a question, so

when you have the press and the government, do you have somebody playing reagan going what? what? [ laughter ] >> actually in our current simulation, that will be rolled out this spring, shameless plug in cooperation with mount vernon we do not mention the name of the president, president reagan is never utilized in our simulation. >> too bad because he was great with the press. >> i think the funding issue is really interesting and important question. each institution come everybody here that's 100 different sites, and we probably got a lot of different laws. we've got 13 or 14 sites and we got quite a few different models. i think the public pride in partnership is aware of the world is and within that

spectrum are you 100 percent private? are you 100 percent government? are you somewhere in between? and part of our mission and telling stories is to tell stories that people care enough about that they want to support us. and with that they want to support us by directly writing a check or if they want to support us by sending people to congress who are going is a port the national archives or the smithsonian or the national library of congress, that's part of every one of our jobs. we convince people that what we do is important. if we don't protect it, the funding problem is not just how do we get the money, but how do we tell our story to other people that they want to support us where we fit into their vision of what i'm >> i will just add one thing. i think philanthropy is changing and that would be at totally separate panel. >> it would. >> and a big impact and i think in that context nature and

philanthropy, the necessity to partner is greater than it's ever been before. i just very much feel like folks who feel they can go it alone and make the case for impact are probably in the wrong course. we need to be together to show impact. so i'll leave it at that. >> >> to add to that, this is a network. and it's a course of funding. but it's wonderful book written and one of the chapter titles and that book is do what you do best. so there isn't any reason why everybody in this room who wants to give a situation room experienced no matter who your president is and what you can't link to that experience, we show funders and you get jazzed up about what you're doing. >> the major reason of that

impact is important. were we learned a lot in philanthropy is particular members are interested in efficacy. they don't want to just be having their name on something. they want to have the program work. >> that's particularly true with the next generation of philanthropists. they are more as funders of startups, they want to see some kind of revenue-generating model howard going to sustain this and what is your long range plan and who else is going to be supporting this u like you said they don't want to just give you a check and have their name put on the building and walk away they want to know what you're doing to become sustainable. >> they want to be involved in it. >> they want to understand what your model is. you know, we all work from the retail level. people come to us and we tried it tell them one person at a time when our stories are. we had to find some way to be scalable so that we can reach

not 1000 people put 100,000 people or million. that's one of the challenges that we are finding is that if we can't find where we are reaching 1 million people is going to be much harder to get the funding in the future. >> michael and my comment about public funding, it's not the most glamorous approach in meetings with public legislators, i have just described it as just a pragmatic self interest of society. we are paying for failures of good civic habits. because we have not cultivated those. you look at, a number of people imprisoned, that is a blatant failure of good civic support systems. and that, it's better to invest on the front end now, some

don't listen to that, but others are receptive because they do understand some pragmatics about that, and i think it's part of our advocacy is to promote, if you go to john adams in massachusetts count institution, there is no finer description of what and i'll deal civic law is. go to that constitution and read it. and, that is what we ought to be aspiring, vibrant positive civic environments and all of our states. >> thank you. >> hello i'm ann adams i'm the director of education at andrew jackson hermitage in nashville. i like to respond earlier to what we were talking about earlier. the cynicism that children are bringing to civics education right now. we primarily deal with 9, 10,

11-year-olds and i would agree that there's a great deal of cynicism coming in with the children at these ages. and all i can think of as a 9- year-old is where that cynicism comes from comments what they hear from the parents, their teachers and the older adults in their lives who have formed their opinions. and so mike weston is while we work so hard to address these issues on the k-12 level, our work is only as good as the other adults in their lives that are supporting it. whether they are how are we defeating those arguments they are hearing at home? how do we defeat the voices in the media? so i would be curious as to what your organizations do to support ongoing civics education at the k-12 level. and i'm particularly thinking about civics, you have a way of following students path at that level. do you have information on for lack of a better word for remedial civics education for adults? thank you. >> so your idea was the idea of

a funder of ours and so they said oh, this is so popular with kids when we just take what you got and bring it to be adults because clearly we have a problem. so we are trying to work on a pilot program it's called democracy at play. it helps primarily parents and kids to play together but also on immigrant, sites or organizations that work with immigrant populations or work with different aggregation of adult populations. so the answer to your question is, i don't know yet. we are in the process of doing that and, but you've got a great idea and the carnegie's agree with you. >> but you know, civic education often is, we have been talking about creating it for the children, but for grown-

ups, it's by, it there suddenly is a school board election and and were you say oh my god, this is going to matter to my kids. and you know you need a red light at the corner. it means that's the way kids that kids get civic league educated that they are engaged in some issue or campaign of some kind. >> right. >> you look at the demographics there is a dip between 18 and 30-year-old because of the way the education system is. they are very focused on trying to get themselves started life so it's very difficult for them to on big issues like what the nature of democracy is. but it's very easy to get them involved in issues that the care passionately about. so to engage that horde of young population you have to be issue driven and of course that something a lot of us at sites, particularly at federal sites can't do. so there's a little bit of a challenge there as to how you engage that demographic which are very focused, when you

can't take a stand, when you can't say we support this issue or this piece of legislation or this candidate. you can do that but what we can do is make a decision about what manage to you and make a change in your community. that's about all we can do within that concept that demographic is a critical one and they are hard to reach. >> we are all hearing that young people don't like politics, but that they do like volunteerism. they do want to be engaged in something. and are you saying that, david? >> yes, not only in those broad categories but in the way they put it into effect in their lives. what is different now is the intensity. they will solve the problem and the group will solve the problem doesn't necessarily stay together. it goes into you know, to other things to solve other problems with different configurations and so if we had a sort of network quality to it.

the other thing about this broader phenomenon is that there is some hopeful data. 73 percent of american adults describe themselves as lifelong learners. we suspect that although we don't have, no one would use that phrase since 20 years ago so we could ask the same questions. the starting point for that is, so many industries and businesses collapse or struggled, there was a agonizing reappraisal at the bigger level am i still going to hold up? is my company going to surprise? even is my industry a viable industry in the future? when you ask them about being lifelong learners they say i've got to keep myself prepared or good worker. the second reason that the like to think of themselves is that? altruism. their learning something that will solve somebody else's problem and make them more effective at doing it. >> so it gets back to that question that they don't think

the government is a place to the fact? >> yes we are now meeting emergent it's without a little bit of data that says people are very confident at the local level they can get stuff done and their voice matters and in the capacity for bipartisanship or multi- partisanship and things, but they just despair at the national level that can be inactive. >> i also thought it was tremendous of what is called service leadership. and i guess that all goes together with, with the idea of doing something in the community. >> yeah and the parkland kids are good example of that. they were trying to address a problem but soon enough it became clear, that particularly good leaders in different aspects of it, the other piece would evolve. >> go ahead. >> my name is kendall thompson

i'm with the national parks service. and most of my question have already been addressed but i do have one little sort of technical question, probably for mr. rainey. in the park service we do a lot of teach the trainer and i'm curious if your data has drill down a little bit further, because we talk a lot about the kids, we talk about the general population, but i'm curious about the teachers themselves and their level of civic, just intelligence. >> there have not been big representative samples on that, but generally civics and history teaches are despairing of their colleagues. [ laughter ] and it is a mixed bag. there are so many teachers now we hear from are not necessarily trained in the subject but they are now teaching and things like that. the phenomenon used to be it

used to be such a networking. if you can find people who will evangelize for you and spread the word for you, you've obviously multiplied your capacity to have an impact. just as an avid consumer of national parks. thank you. >> i did my penance at the national parks yesterday and in terms of history. a terrific website, the solid information, and the reenactors and all of it. it's just terrific so thank you. >> what can you say about global literacy? >> i think there's a great need for teacher development in the field, there's no doubt about it. many teachers are asking for just the basics and civics to be taught as they are being

asked to do more and more. and again about the pedagogy about how to make it engaging how to make it experiential. both sides are very much needed and there's a great deal of investment and the question is whether we have the resources to do that. >> i'm lindsay richardson i'm the curator of collections at daley plaza. and i was listening to you. >> as anybody knows this is where the kid in the assassination took. place. >> and my question is not geared in that way. i was actually listening to you describe the icivics i'm going to try that and all my kids at home. and the american billets which i briefly wished i didn't live in dallas i wish i lived closer to you because that is one thing the kids would enjoy. but it was making me think

about my own education and an american civics and economics and that sort of stuff. and i was thinking that there were a lot of different ways that i was taught that, it wasn't just one game it wasn't just one class or one program, it's very much a pervasive cultural sort of approach. and it goes from a very young age through college and beyond that. and, i imagine that is true for a lot of people in the room. so i actually just wanted to ask you as a representative of our group to share some of your stories about how you learned some of these american civics lessons or self. >> i am an immigrant. [ laughter ] and i have studied blood he hard. -- blood he hard. [ applause ].

>> i learned from to grand daddy's and they never held an office or anything and were intensely interested in politics and history and just their example of living out the life of being engaged in their community. i will, if stuart doesn't mind, i will say that you shared yesterday about your rocky ridge elementary school trip to washington. i did not meet stewart until he was director of the library at mount vernon, and it turned out we grew up two doors from each other. didn't know each other. so, i had the first lucky safety trip, i'm older than he is and, that meant the world to me. and that's just, and i tried with our staff to say this, and

i know you do with your staff. these young people coming into our doors, there's no telling what they will do if they are inspired. >> you raise a couple of interesting things there though, because first of all at the time of your granddaddy's, people were expected to be involved. >> yes. >> if you are an upright citizen, you were involved, and that expectation has gone away, which is clearly part of the problem here. but also you told us earlier before we came out on the stage that your kids in alabama mississippi, etc. seldom do make those kinds of trips. there are archives here and at the capital we see the fifth grade trip with a great trip you know all spring. and they make you crazy but god love them. but, your kids don't have that opportunity. >> not as many. just the pragmatics and, i mean

i have had the opportunity to volunteer on the bus to washington. [ laughter ] >> i love kids. >> i did the third grade to leesburg with my grandchildren, god! [ laughter ] i am going straight to heaven. [ laughter ] paul? >> well, i grew up in the 60s, you know i had both the extraordinary inspiration of nasa and the space program, where you saw sort of american ingenuity and courage at its greatest in the vietnam war where i had friends died. and so, we didn't think of it as civic education at that point, we thought of it as what is happening in our society on a daily basis? whether it was about new protests in the south for the civil rights movement, whether

it was the escalation of the war in vietnam whether it was landing a man on the moon, there was a sense that all americans were involved every single day because it affected you personally. so i was an avid consumer of news and very interested in history by the time i was little kid, and i actually had some reading disability when i was young so my parents encouraged me to read and i remember telling my mom wendy when i was taking the library book and bringing it home, i said i went to school today and came home with genghis khan pete because those with the books that i was reading. i think you connect today and people don't think that politics affect them directly. i am not sure how in the society people can feel that way but you hear it all the time. i don't care about politics come i don't want to get involved i don't watch the news i don't want newspapers. for us, it was literally like a debt, when are you going to vietnam? and what's gonna happen to you

in a day basis? and i'm not sure how we get back to point where people understand that the things in washington are going to directly affect you. >> i don't know what made me turn this way, but i decided after i got out of college that there was nothing more exciting in the world to do than be a political reporter. and so, her husband, they work for competing newspapers, and there were so many days when i woke up and just had my brains beating. but when you get a press pass, it's a calling card, to figure stuff out. especially if you don't have a technical belief system like i did, you go into every nook and cranny of the world that you wanted to go into. so the puzzle solving part of it with explanation part of was just as romantic as all get

out. >> well, i was raised in the halls of congress [ laughter ] and skipped school on days when there was any important debate that was held. we sat in the galleries and watched, in fact this is about the nerdiest thing you heard of. when i turned 7, i woke up all excited because then i could sit in the public gallery and not just the family gallery. and my seventh grade birthday party was in the speaker's lobby. [ laughter ] so, i never had a moment of my life when i was not completely involved in this. but, you know i think first of all, this summit that you have convened has been incredibly useful. [ applause ] everybody has learned from each other and we

will all lead with agenda items and come back together in a couple of years with new things to report and new ideas to pursue. so thank you very, very much. and david, always thank you for, isn't it great, the archivist of the united states? [ laughter ] [ applause ] and thank you to the panel. i must say that i think we are at a moment this week that we also should be taking advantage of. and that is the salvation of john mccain's life. because we really are seeing someone who did feel that as you said tom, much more unites us than divides us. and he was a hero, he sacrificed for his country

served for the country but he believed so strongly that this unity with our underlying feature. and what has been played over and over and over and over again. since he died was that moment with the woman at the town hall where she said you know, i don't trust obama and he said no, no ma'am. the part i actually liked better than that was at the convention, and there you are with all the screaming delegates and all those stupid hats and he is giving the acceptance speech. this is the moment of tremendous passion on the part of all of the delegates and the assembly and the people watching. and, you know they are screaming their heads off and everything he says has been revved up. and, you know is the most partisan moment that you have every four years.

and then he said, and now i want to talk to my democratic opponents. you will have many debates in the course of this campaign, but we are americans, much more unites us than divides us. that's an extraordinary moment at a political convention. and i think that for all he cares deeply about this country and about making sure the people understand why all of the things that we care about in terms of government and civic education in the history are important, that you would take this moment and enlarge it, and take it back to the various institutions to make it useful for years to become. no better tribute should be paid to him certainly. [ applause ] thank you. we will see you later!

[ laughter ] saturday at 8 pm eastern, conversations with three retiring members of congress, republicans peter roskam, john duncan and mike kaufman. they all discuss loop their losing bit and their time in congress. we go on our apps, we go on our devices we went things quickly but jefferson wrote this 14 years after he wrote the declaration of independence. he said the ground of liberty is to be gained by inches, one must be content what we can get from time to time and eternal rest for what is it to get. it takes time to persuade men, even to do it if it's for their own good. so my point is that we culturally need to step back and say look, these things take time, we got to take small

steps in order to get there. >> to think that we have spent trillions now on these wars and that the war in afghanistan has been going on, it's 18 years, i think it's just ridiculous. and i think also that these wars and our foreign policy has caused us to have more enemies than we would've had they have done more harm than good. >> and the congress of the united states, i believe in the house of representatives there is simply still even with the reforms that nancy pelosi has pledged to accept based on my counterparts and their problem solvers congress, i believe there's just too much power and too few answers and to be getting done for american people. and i fear that is not going to change. >> watch conversation with retiring members of congress saturday 8 pm eastern on c-span and c-span that work and listen with the free c-span radio. sunday on q&a.

>> so we are on the floor the united states senate and no one else there got an opportunity to do this to perform production of the documentary on the us floor now when they begin we are going to ring around the chamber and get some shots during the session and afterwards going back down to the floor. >> c-span executive producer mark vargas talks about his work on c-span's upcoming original production, the senate, conflict and compromise. >> if mitch mcconnell suggested this, how much control do you have over the contents? >> zero. when we met with him for the first time, we had a couple conditions. one was that hey, you have start sort of got to grease the skids with the democrats because if we want access to the democrats we've got to get access to the republicans and

two you don't have any editorial control over this. and they said well, that's fine but we don't want you to focus on the acrimony. and so we sort of said, no, you can't ask us to do that because we are not going to concentrate on it, but again we can't shy away from it, we've got to come out with a product that we feel both people on the journalism site and people who watch the senate can say okay they didn't give a big wet kiss to the senate but you've also got to see that we didn't do a hatchet job either way. mark hackett's original production on the senate, conflict and compromise, sunday night at central and eastern on c-span's to and a. the sentence of presidents from gerald ford recently convened here in washington for the presidential site summit hosted by the white house historic association. american history tv interviewed susan ford bales, the daughter president ford. this is 15 minutes.

susan ford bales, how did your life change in august 1974? >> drastically. first of all, i grew up in alexandria in the same house that i came home from the hospital in and never moved until i moved into the white house. so, i already had secret service protection. back then, my mother didn't, but i did because of the threat from the sla. so, i had secret service protection and my mother didn't which was such a strange phenomenon. and, the most exciting part of it was in meeting into a place that i had my own bathroom and i didn't have to share with my brother [ laughter ]. "the secret service detection must have been a real shock to your everyday life.? it was but i grew up with three older brothers, soulless kind of having your brothers around